Make your own almond milk!!!!
It is very easy and I will give you all of the instructions to make it.
I'm going a bit simpler than the versions I've found online, so bear with me.
First of all, why make my own almond milk when I can easily go buy some at the store?
Ummm, have you seen the ingredients list on the carton?
Have you looked at the grams of sugar, etc?
Have you seen the price tag on almond milk?
Clearly, making your own isn't hard and you will be saving almost a dollar for every half gallon you make as opposed to buying it. More importantly, you won't be using any sugar, sweeteners, thickeners, or obscure ingredients.
On top of that, you don't toss the almond meal (what is left after you squeeze the milk out), but it's actually almond flour and you can use it for lots of things! I'll make sure and write more on this (including recipes) at the end of the post.
Take a look and see how easy it is!
One half (1/2) cup of almonds will make 2 cups of almond milk.
One cup of almonds will make one quart (4 cups) of almond milk.
Two cups of almonds will make one half gallon (8 cups) of almond milk.
Four cups of almonds will make one gallon (16 cups) of almond milk.
1) You need:
- raw almonds (I bought mine at Sam's Club because they have an incredible deal)
- purified water (I prefer spring water, but purified will do fine)
- blender
- colander and cheesecloth or rag
- a large container or a few smaller containers to hold the milk
- OPTIONAL: if you find that the milk is too "blah", then you can use raw honey or dates to taste. You can also add a few drops of organic vanilla extract. I find that my milk lasts longer (by a couple of days or so) when I add a little bit of organic raw honey. It sweetens it a little bit, but I think that the antibacterial and antifungal properties in honey make the milk last longer.
2) Soak the almonds overnight. This is very important for many reasons. One of them is to prep the almonds to make the milk, but also to remove the phytic acid on them.
Rinse the almonds a few times if you can, but soak for about 8 hours. Make sure the almonds are
completely submerged in the water (water goes about an inch above the almonds because as they soak the water, they will expand).
3) Rinse and spread them on a piece of cloth or kitchen towel to sprout for a day or two. You can totally skip this part if you are pressed for time. Your milk won't taste better or worse, it'll just be healthier if you let the almonds sprout.
4) Put the almonds in the blender with the correct amount of water according to how many cups of almonds you are using (see above). For example, in the pictures, I used 1.5 cups of almonds and added 6 cups of water (it's 2 cups of water per half cup of almonds). It made 3 mason jars' worth of almond milk or 6 cups' worth.
5) Blend, blend, blend until you can see that the almonds are pretty fine grains. Taste a little bit of it to see if it's got enough flavor for you. If it doesn't, then add either raw honey or dates and blend some more. This is strictly up to you and your taste buds. I don't add anything to it.
6) Pour the almond milk into a container using a colander with a rag or cheesecloth folded a few times to make sure you don't get any bits of almond in there (unless you like it with texture). Let the milk drain through (be patient, you might need to let it sit there for 10-20 minutes). Squeeze the excess milk out of the cheesecloth or rag. KEEP THE ALMOND MEAL!!!
7) Pour the milk into your container(s) and voilá! You're done! The milk needs to be shaken every time before use. It needs to be refrigerated and it will last about a week (give or take).
And now for the almond meal:
Almond meal is what is left over from the almonds that you blended to make the almond milk. It is very important that it dries up completely before using and before storing.
The almond meal will be pretty moist after he milk has been squeezed out of it. What I do is spread it thin all on a large bar pan (Pampered Chef stoneware) because it absorbs liquids and let it sit like that for a few hours. Then I mess around with it and undo all the small clumps while I set the oven to 250 degrees. I throw it in there for about an hour. Some people leave the oven door cracked so the moisture can escape and dry it faster. I can't do that cause I have little ones, but it still works. Once it's out, I leave it on the stove or counter and mess around with it (swish it around on the cookie sheet) until I feel it's completely dry. I could tell because it not only felt dry, but it was easier to move around (think wet vs. dry sand, sort of).
If you used a cup of almonds to make almond milk, you will get about a cup of almond meal, so make your calculations according to any recipes you want to use it with.
Here are some recipes for almond meal:
- Use it in oatmeal, yogurt, on fruit, cereal, cookies, muffins, etc.
-
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/products/p/almondmeal.htm
Enjoy and let me know what you think. :D
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